226 
Religion of the Ceylonese. 
to be assisted in climbing by ropes and chains fixed by hooks 
to the rocks. The night time is usually chosen to ascend, in 
order to avoid such fatiguing exertions during the excessive 
heat of the day. On tlie summit are a number of large flat 
rocks plentifully supplied with water. It is on one of them 
that the print of Adam’s foot is shewn. 
This mountain, which is looked upon as the original resi- 
dence of Adam, is held in great veneration not only by the na- 
tives of Ceylon, but also by a variety of persons of different 
casts and persuasions throughout India. Most of these have par- 
ticular places of worship on it to which they make pilgrimages 
at certain seasons of the year. The Byragees and other sects 
from the coasts of India, as well as the Gonies, and Cinglese 
devotees, visit this mountain. The Dutch were very averse to 
the natives of the coast resorting thither, and intermixing with 
their free countrymen of Candy. All restrictions of this sect 
have now, however, been done away by the English govern- 
ment, and the Cinglese now make their pilgrimages wherever 
inclination prompts them, and an opportunity offers. The Ro- 
man Catholic priests, with their usual industry, have taken ad- 
vantage of the current superstitions to forward the propagation 
of their own tenets ; and a chapel which they have erected on 
the mountain is yearly frequented by vast numbers of black 
Cliristians of the Portugueze and Malabar race. 
It is to Adam’s Peak that the Ceylonese repair to worship 
at the great festival of Buddou. The Cinglese of the coasts 
in particular resort to it in vast multitudes. A large propor- 
tion of the Candians likewise attend ; but whether from a fear 
of mixing with foreigners, or from ideas of superior sanctity? 
they seem more inclined to hold their great festival under the 
